Instinct

Chapter 2

Alfie woke up in a dirty brown seat, at the back of a coach, driving along. His eyes slowly let him take in his surroundings, as he was greeted with the miserable sight of his Geography class. He glanced to his left and saw the window he was sitting next to. Just boring plains outside. He let out a long, loud groan and turned to his side and was met with the pretty face of Joanne, who happened to be laughing at him.

"How long have I been out?", he sighed.

"About six hours," she gave him a mocking sigh, "You missed the waterfall."

Alfie sat up.

"What? You know I wanted to see that! That's the only reason I brought my camera!"

Joanne laughed again and started telling him about the wonders of this waterfall, demonstrating the waves with her long brown hair. He sat in his seat at the back of the coach feeling sorry for himself, but secretly happy, his day was going great.

Alfie carried on listening to Joanne, laughing along with her, until he was hit in the face with a flying shoe. He glanced up, angry, and saw two boys sitting a few rows ahead of him. Clyde and Toby sat smiling guiltily in his direction. His scowl faded. They were the two troublemakers of his class, also the sweetest. They had been dating for a year and a half, and Alfie couldn't help but smile when he saw them together, even when they were throwing shoes at him.

"Having fun there, lovebirds?" Toby called across the coach.

"Speak for yourself, dickhead." Joanne called back, leaving Clyde howling with laughter.

Alfie slouched down and smiled to himself. He loved these people. His life was great. These thoughts circled through his mind as he once again drifted off to sleep.

Alfie jolted awake to the sound of screaming. He sat up and opened his eyes wide, just fast enough to watch his whole life flipped on its head. Within moments of his eyes opening, the whole coach was thrown a metre into the air, and through the shock, he caught a glimpse of a huge dark shadow against the coach. Then the coach hit.

A few seconds later, his nostrils filled with smells of vomit, gasoline, and his own blood. Screams constantly filled his head. He felt his head and discovered a deep gash below his ear, which was depositing blood too fast for him to handle. He needed to escape.

As easily as he could while hanging upside down, Alfie managed to unstrap himself and topple onto the seat below. His nose started leaking blood too. He scrambled out of the now smashed window and lay exhausted on the ground. He reached his left arm across his body and grabbed his other sleeve, trying to tear it. After a few attempts, it ripped off his t-shirt, and he wrapped it around his face, covering his nose and ear, attempting to soak up the blood.

People slowly started crawling out of the coach. Alfie caught a glimpse of Joanne sluggishly emerging from the window before he passed out completely.

For the third time that day, he re-awoke up, surprised. While he had passed out near a destroyed coach, he re-awakened to dark leaves crowding his vision.